By
Stelios Kanavakis
The UK Government remains committed to the Successor submarine programme,
according to the country's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. It is a
project of absolute necessity in order for the UK to remain a capable
deterrent force in an era of critical global security issues, the minister
reiterated during his speech at a reception at the House of Commons
on 21 October. |
He
appealed to all moderate MPs to have national security as the top priority
and support the construction of the four new Trident submarines, in
an effort to continue the 60-year consensus on nuclear deterrence. The
threats are constantly present, albeit evolving. Despite 9/11 and the
change in modern warfare paradigm that it brought, state threats such
as those coming from Russia and South Korea were the examples he presented
in his speech.
He stressed that nuclear proliferation is still an important factor
to consider in defence planning. Although the UK has taken steps towards
reducing by half its Cold War nuclear stockpile and the nuclear warheads
on each submarine from 48 to 40, nuclear deterrence will continue to
play an important role.
Furthermore, the construction of the submarines is an important investment.
Michael Fallon stressed this project's sheer size and its impact on
the national and local economies, while at the same moment it will expand
the country's manufacturing skills and capacity. The investment is three
times the budget of the London Olympics and nearly twice the budget
of Crossrail.
Due to the critical nature of the project he has warned the industries
involved that they should not repeat the delays and cost overruns of
the Astute-class submarines. It was a clear effort to gain the parliamentary
backing while playing down the serious concerns regarding the huge costs
associated with the project, which has become a main issue of political
confrontation.
The final cost of the new submarines has not been made clear yet but
it is expected that the project could cost around GBP20 billion. Nevertheless,
this could rise further.
The UK Government decided to cut around GBP37 billion from state expenditure
by 2019-20 while at the same moment it asks the MPs to back up the submarines
procurement. This has been used as an argument from those who are not
in favour of the programme fiercely debating whether the country should
opt to acquire the new submarines.
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